Strode's College News

Students at Strode's College Egham celebrated their exam successes on Thursday.

Strode’s is the biggest provider of A level courses in north west Surrey and more than 500 second year students took one or more A levels at the College in 2013, with nearly 1300 entries in total. Many of these students combined their A levels with other qualifications; almost 200 second year students took one or more Level 3 BTEC and nearly 250 students completed the increasingly popular Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) as part of their second year study programme.

There was an overall pass rate of over 96% at A level and 100% pass rate in all 12 of the second year Level 3 BTECs. 100% pass rates were achieved in 21 A level subjects and a third of the BTEC grades were Distinctions or Distinction Starred (D*).

Forty seven students achieved the equivalent of three or more A* and A grades including Tom Southern (ex-Magna Carta School, Staines) who achieved A* grades in Mathematics, Further Mathematics and Chemistry and an A grade in Physics. Tom will be reading Natural Sciences at Cambridge. Also securing his place at Cambridge to read Natural Sciences is Richard Hobbs (also ex-Magna Carta School) and Sam Ollason (ex-Matthew Arnold School, Staines) who both achieved A* grades in Mathematics and Further Mathematics and A grades in Physics and Chemistry. Sam, who has already been awarded the prestigious Strode’s Foundation Academic Achiever’s Award, will be reading Mathematics at Bath University. Rachel Surridge, who was home educated before coming to Strode’s, achieved six A* and A grades. She took three A levels at Strode’s and achieved A*s in Chemistry and Classical Civilisation and an A in Physics, at the same time as gaining A grades in Mathematics, Biology and a B in English, all of which she studied independently.

Also collecting results today were England Schools international footballer Luke Neville, who achieved the grades he needed to go to St Mary's University College, Twickenham to read Sport, Health and Fitness, and Callum Webster who is progressing to an apprenticeship in Business Administration with DHL. Both Luke and Callum came to Strode’s from Sunbury Manor School.

Principal Anne Fielding Smith said ‘We are very proud of our students’ achievements. So many of them have achieved fantastic results here at Strode’s and we are absolutely delighted for them. As always, this reflects the huge amount of hard work put in by students and College staff, together with a great deal of support from parents. Our entry requirements are very modest compared with many school sixth forms; however, we offer great diversity and choice of qualifications and we set very high expectations. We are therefore delighted that our students have responded positively and made the most of the opportunities we provide. We wish all our students the very best for the future, whether they are progressing to university, an apprenticeship or directly into employment, and we thank them for the contribution they have made to the ongoing success of the College.